By Special to the Times for the Carmi Times
FAIRFIELD
Illinois hospitals and health systems are making major strides in improving quality and patient safety, according to the Illinois Hospital Association’s (IHA) Institute for Innovations in Care and Quality on the work of its Illinois Hospital Engagement Network (HEN). Fairfield Memorial Hospital is among the 100 Illinois hospitals voluntarily participating in the IHA HEN, and was also named in the top 7 hospitals for their commitment and delivery of quality care. Since January 2012 through March 2014, the 100 Illinois hospitals and health systems participating in the Illinois HEN have prevented 15,887 patient harms, with an associated cost savings of $161.8 million.
“I am proud of the substantial progress FMH is making to improve the care that patients receive to ensure patients receive the highest quality care,” said Katherine Bunting-Williams, FMH CEO. “I commend the team of staff at FMH including, but not limited to our Hospitalist, patient care staff, Quality Analyst, and supporting work groups for accelerating quality improvement, patient safety and transforming our delivery of health care in our hospital.”
According to the latest results, FMH has achieved substantial compliance with reducing preventable readmissions, as well as reducing and maintaining acceptable benchmark standards for healthcare acquired infections. Our quality leaders have attended and presented at many IHA HEN events and navigated reviews of quality through IHA HEN site visits.
Fairfield Memorial Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Katherine Bunting-Williams, Ph.D., led FMH along the journey by serving on the CEO panel for the Senior Leadership for Quality Meeting hosted by the American Hospital Association, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Health Research & Educational Trust. This CEO panel provided a high level overview of each hospital’s comprehensive approach to quality improvement and stressed the key role senior leadership plays in reducing patient harm and preventable readmissions. At that time, FMH was already consistently participating in the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) HRET, and thus FMH was identified as a facility with successful interventions in reducing healthcare acquired conditions and preventable readmissions. Dr. Bunting-Williams shared best practices that have been proven successful to conference attendees, and therefore representing FMH’s dedication to ensuring positive outcomes for patients.
Through hospital expert presentations, such as the one presented by Dr. Bunting-Williams, there are now front-line hospital improvement leaders armed with best practices to engage their teams, overcome challenges, and spread sustainable improvement strategies. Dr. Bunting-Williams’ presentation to Senior Hospital Leaders attending the program was entitled Quality in a Critical Access Hospital (CAH).
FMH consistently participated in the HEN initiative throughout the entire year through reporting on a regular basis and monitoring quality by collecting and analyzing it. FMH’s participation in the Healthier Hospital Initiative is not simply hoping they meet quality standards, but rather ensuring best outcomes for the patients. In addition to these direct initiatives, FMH provided community outreach on the topics of readmission reduction, depression, and Alzheimer’s. FMH has also been the recipient of an honorable mention award for quality and was specifically honored with a certificate for submitting the most HEN Data. This was a noteworthy accomplishment as FMH was the top CAH hospital recognized with their scores being compared to scores from major medical centers.
